Cars
News from Autoblog (via Automotive News, somehow via General Motors) that GMC will not build a unibody pickup truck like the Denali XT concept from the 2008 Chicago auto show is not surprising. Other than a handful of products from Ford Motor Company, almost every car, all crossovers and most SUVs on the market make use of a unibody. Trucks, however, are typically built using body-on-frame "technology".
- 2012 Honda Ridgeline Pictured, Priced And Detailed, Gets New Sport Trim
Despite seeing its sales drop by close to 50 percent in the first eight months of 2011 (from 11,320 units in Jan-Aug 2010, to 5,776 in the same period this year), the Honda Ridgeline is here to stay – at least for another year, that is. For the...
- Complete American Pickup Truck Sales Figures - 2009 Year End
You thought 2008 was bad? U.S. pickup truck sales plunged 30% to fewer than 1.5 million in 2009 as every truck save for the new Suzuki Equator produced sales declines, some of which were disastrous. The U.S. new vehicle industry was down 21% to 10.4...
- Complete American Pickup Truck Sales Figures - 2007 Year End
2007 was the Toyota Tundra's most successful year ever, but in no wise was 2007 the year of the pickup truck, not in the home of the pickup truck. In the United States, sales of all but three trucks declined. Two of the pickups that produced improved...
- 2012 Year End Top 15 Best-selling Trucks In Canada
17.3% of the new vehicles sold in Canada in 2012 were pickup trucks. Of those 290,481 trucks, 36.6% were Ford F-Series pickups, 29.4% were GM trucks of one kind or another, 23.8% were Ram Pickups, and 8.9% were Japanese brand trucks. Of the 25,843 Japanese...
- Top 5 Best-selling Trucks In America (november 2009)
If only GMC Sierra sales were a little stronger than 8,371, General Motors would have been able to push their truck sales past the planet's dominant pickup family at the end of November. Alas. What's more surprising than the steady full-size truck...
Cars
GM SAYS "NO GO" FOR DENALI XT PRODUCTION - HONDA SAYS "GOOD THINKING"
News from Autoblog (via Automotive News, somehow via General Motors) that GMC will not build a unibody pickup truck like the Denali XT concept from the 2008 Chicago auto show is not surprising. Other than a handful of products from Ford Motor Company, almost every car, all crossovers and most SUVs on the market make use of a unibody. Trucks, however, are typically built using body-on-frame "technology". Theories persist that using a monocoque structure for a truck could work. Despite necessary sacrifices in payload and towing, the gains in ride & handling and fuel economy would pay off, right? Right?
As Autoblog points out, the only truck out there with unibody construction is the Honda Ridgeline. Honda's truck will get'cha one measly extra mpg in the city over the a typical Chevrolet Silverado 4x4.
Perhaps a stronger argument against mass production of unibody pickups is the sales, up to this point, of the only unibody pickup truck. The Good Car Guy, aka Timothy Cain, wrote extensively on this subject at LemonFree.com just last week. The Dodge Ram, which is far and away not the best-selling truck in America, sells more than twelve times as often as the Honda Ridgeline in 2009.
Is there no place for monocoque architecture in the truck world of tomorrow? Certainly not as a major player from a major truck manufacturer. As a niche product catering to a different kind of truck buyer, the Ridgeline can continue and a company like Ford, GMC, Dodge, or Toyota could make a simple but not very profitable run at 25,000 units per year.
- 2012 Honda Ridgeline Pictured, Priced And Detailed, Gets New Sport Trim
Despite seeing its sales drop by close to 50 percent in the first eight months of 2011 (from 11,320 units in Jan-Aug 2010, to 5,776 in the same period this year), the Honda Ridgeline is here to stay – at least for another year, that is. For the...
- Complete American Pickup Truck Sales Figures - 2009 Year End
You thought 2008 was bad? U.S. pickup truck sales plunged 30% to fewer than 1.5 million in 2009 as every truck save for the new Suzuki Equator produced sales declines, some of which were disastrous. The U.S. new vehicle industry was down 21% to 10.4...
- Complete American Pickup Truck Sales Figures - 2007 Year End
2007 was the Toyota Tundra's most successful year ever, but in no wise was 2007 the year of the pickup truck, not in the home of the pickup truck. In the United States, sales of all but three trucks declined. Two of the pickups that produced improved...
- 2012 Year End Top 15 Best-selling Trucks In Canada
17.3% of the new vehicles sold in Canada in 2012 were pickup trucks. Of those 290,481 trucks, 36.6% were Ford F-Series pickups, 29.4% were GM trucks of one kind or another, 23.8% were Ram Pickups, and 8.9% were Japanese brand trucks. Of the 25,843 Japanese...
- Top 5 Best-selling Trucks In America (november 2009)
If only GMC Sierra sales were a little stronger than 8,371, General Motors would have been able to push their truck sales past the planet's dominant pickup family at the end of November. Alas. What's more surprising than the steady full-size truck...